March 25, 2008

Origins of the Uighur

Interesting bit from the paper:

Notably, the distribution of admixture proportions among UIG individuals is relatively even, with 48.7% the lowest admixture from European ancestry and the highest 62.2%. The standard deviation is only 3.8%, which is much smaller than the estimation for the African-American (AfA) population,58 suggesting a much longer history of admixture events for the Uyghur population compared with the AfA population.

The American Journal of Human Genetics, doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.01.017

Analysis of Genomic Admixture in Uyghur and Its Implication in Mapping Strategy

Shuhua Xu et al.

Abstract

The Uyghur (UIG) population, settled in Xinjiang, China, is a population presenting a typical admixture of Eastern and Western anthropometric traits. We dissected its genomic structure at population level, individual level, and chromosome level by using 20,177 SNPs spanning nearly the entire chromosome 21. Our results showed that UIG was formed by two-way admixture, with 60% European ancestry and 40% East Asian ancestry. Overall linkage disequilibrium (LD) in UIG was similar to that in its parental populations represented in East Asia and Europe with regard to common alleles, and UIG manifested elevation of LD only within 500 kb and at a level of 0.1 < style="font-weight: bold;">we estimated that the admixture event of UIG occurred about 126 [107∼146] generations ago, or 2520 [2140∼2920] years ago assuming 20 years per generation. In spite of the long history and short LD of Uyghur compared with recent admixture populations such as the African-American population, we suggest that mapping by admixture LD (MALD) is still applicable in the Uyghur population but ∼10-fold AIMs are necessary for a whole-genome scan.

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, was part've the Silk Road and there was Sino-Roman contact as early as the reign of Caesar Augustus. My guess if there is European influence, it would be from Italians and Greeks. Many in and around that area claim descent from Romans too.

Recently they found a Roman style temple in China

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200704/04/eng20070404_363720.html

So perhaps there is some truth to all the legends and even the "European Admixture" present here?!

OK did not see the article in full. It is available. Then the whole study has to be DF. like N/A said. They need to test with neighboring populations before going to UTAH. Still people are funding these kind of papers?. or this is just a high school study?.

Uyghurs and American Enslaved Negros have differing histories-if you didn't notice.AfricanAmericans are oftimes 70-80% Black,which they sort of take pride in(so do most Whites).But the Uyghurs-I don't know what in hell they are-as they're not even part of American History.What is the point of comparing them to AfriAmer?Why not compare Uyghurs to some other race? Or, Uyghurs WANTED to be American Slaves?

Those were the days. Nordic europids, mongoloids, congoids, cushites and australoids roaming the planet. Then Eve had to taste that damn forbidden fruit.:)

There really ought to be a psychological study made on peoples reactions to genetic studies. It's very clear that people would like to widen their own ethnicity as much as possible when it comes to claiming historical glories while narrowing the ethnicities of other peoples. When it comes to historical crimes however the urge is the opposite.

Well the article is odd that it compares them to people from Utah( of all US states)..looks like it was just used to determine the Caucasoid relationship and percentage, rather than where it came from. However they state the Tocharians a few times, which is historically accurate. So it was the Indo-European Tocharians and probably also the Parthians and Greco-Romans which also moved into that area within the last 2000 years or so give or take. Interestingly the Tocharian language is very close to Latin and Greek as well.

Tocharian seems to be close to Greek and the other Centum languages grammatically, but closer to Satem languages, like Sanskrit in vocab, I suppose that is due to its location (at the Eastern edge of the Satem language groups, far removed (likely for centuries) from other Centum groups, well maybe until Asiatic Greek contact after the time of Alexander.

I can also testify from personal experience, green eyes, gray eyes, and brown hair are not uncommon among these people. I have never been to Xinjiang, but in Shanghai there is a Uygur (Weiwer) community and I used to frequent a couple of restaurants (good spicy food). They are taller on average than Southern Chinese, heartier, and usually have narrower noses with higher bridges. I would say about 5% have green eyes, maybe 25% brown hair. There skin is usually lighter than Southern Chinese, more of a Mediterranean coloring, although some are darker.

I got on well with one and he told me he was often thought to be foreign in China (as he looked more Persian) and he hated the Han Chinese. :-) He also told me he considered himself part of the larger Turkish world and was fond of Turkish (from Turkey) movies and music. He felt other Turks were his brothers.

What is left of the Tocharians and some of the Central Asian Greeks I guess.

Xinjiang , China has been a contact zone of the peoples from Central Asia and East Asia . In particular, the presence of a Tocharian (an extinct Indo-European language)-speaking population during the first millennium, the discovery of mummies with European features dating from 3,000–4,000 YBP (Years Before Present), and the existence of West Eurasian mitochondrial-DNA lineages clearly indicate the influence of populations of European descent in this region, and the signature of admixture between East Asians and those of European descent is also evident.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 A full analysis of genetic structure of the admixed populations in this region would shed light on the understanding of human migratory history and the admixture of East Asians and those of European descent. Because many human populations settled at Central Asia, which has been a complex assembly of peoples, cultures, and habitats,9 The Uyghur population in Xinjiang demonstrates an array of mixed anthropological features of Europeans and Asians.10 We are interested in both its admixture history and its potential for gene mapping.

It’s the Chinese authors who talk about the admixture involving those of “European descent.” They’re of course (likely) wrong, but the error is theirs, not of the commentators here.

I would say a decent portion of their 'euro' ancestry is infact indian based not only on their features but cultural legacies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIRS60T1AeQ

I am northern euro,indian and east asian and my highest match on decode is to the Uyghurs.I am only 40% euro and abt 20% indian according to the BGA.I look indentical to uyghur women.

Incidentally I also have african admixture but far moreso than them.Looking at the genomes of uyghur samples they had suprising peaks of african admixture on chromosome 19 and chromo 20 as well as on the X.But they were overwhelmingly eurasian.

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